To Live The Life: Scraps
by Cinderfire16
Summary: Snippets in the life of Tony Stark, brother (and eventual successr) of genius inventor Howard Stark, from Captain America through Avengers. This will deviate from later movies.
1. To Live The Live scraps

**Summary: Tony and Howard are brothers. While the elder Stark goes off to war, the younger watches from behind the scenes as Steven Grant Rogers, his only friend, is transformed into the mighty Captain America. It's only a matter of time before Tony got into the thick of things.**

* * *

 _They noticed him when he went to visit his brother on one of their mutual breaks. Working Dad's shops didn't give Tony a lot of time to relax, and neither did being at war for Howard. By the time he saw his older brother again, Captain America had finished his first mission, AWOL though it was. He'd rescued hundreds of prisoners from one of Red Skull's compounds, Howie said, and he hadn't lost a man._

" _Yeah, that sounds like Stevie to me." Tony snorted. "Damn brat always got himself into stuff he could barely get out of."_

" _Huh. I almost forgot you were friends."_

" _You spent the last decade and then some telling me not to be. How could you forget? You're not that shallow, Howie."_

" _Of course not!"_

" _And what's that you got on that napkin, anyway? Is it gonna blow something up?"_

" _It's something I'm working on."_

" _Yeah, well from here it looks an awful lot like one of those guns they tried to reverse-engineer in the scrap shop."_

" _Well it's different, and why do you know that?"_

" _I may not be your level of genius, but I still got something between the ears… and fucking hell, buddy, are you trying to blow the men up before they have a chance to fire?!" He yelped._

" _Quiet down!" Howard hissed, acid leaking through his tone. "And since you're so good at checking my math then you try coming up with something better."_

" _It's actually not half bad, but looking at it from a purely munitions perspective, there are at least three things I can spot that would lead to the demise of the wrong man."_

" _Fire away, kiddo." Tony grinned at his older brother and got to work, pointing out flaws in the plans as seen by his eyes._

* * *

" _You know damn well why they won't let you fight, so don't bother trying."_

" _Yes, yes, heart sucks, but I'd rather do something boring than be stuck running Dad's shops. There's no point!"_

" _Tony-."_

" _I don't care about the fight, Howard. I just want this to be_ over."

* * *

" _Whoa."_

" _Tony?"_

" _What the-?"_

" _Yeah."_

" _When?"_

" _Couple minutes after Buck left during your brother's show, I got recruited by Erskine."_

" _Remind me to kill that bastard."_

" _Please don't."_

" _What if it wasn't Erskine you ran into? You could have been taken right off the streets and no one would know because your so-called brother thought with the wrong head."_

" _That's not-."_

" _Okay? No, it's not. I might hold on the killing him part if he apologizes."_

" _For what, Tony? We're not kids anymore. No one's gonna watch out for us."_

" _Which is exactly my point."_

" _What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you got rejected. Did someone fix your heart?"_

" _You can't fix a birth defect, Steve."_

" _I still say it's an injury. No way were you born with bone fragments in your heart, Tony."_

" _Either way, I'm not a soldier. They've got me behind the scenes."_

" _So you work with Howard?"_

" _Yeah, and it's fuckin' awesome, Rogers! Who knows, maybe Howie'll let you see what we've been doing."_

" _I still can't get over that nickname you gave him." Steve snickered._

" _Yeah? Find something else to laugh him outta town with, cuz I call dibs on that one."_

* * *

"Howie… by the gods, you idiot, what have you left me with?!"

"Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Stark?"

"What? No, Obadiah. I'll be fine. There's not much you can do about my predicament so don't bother. Thank you for your time."

"Anything for the new head of SI."

Stane shut the door behind him and Tony sank into his chair. He'd need to keep an eye out for that bastard. Howard was stupid to trust anyone else with his secrets, but Tony knew well enough that trying to run this monstrosity on his own would likely have killed his brother, if the Winter fucking Soldier hadn't gotten to him first. Tony might not have been the raging genius his brother was, but he'd picked up a few things from their old man, and two of those qualities were a sharp eye for business and steady hands. He'd liked fixing things more than running the family business, but that didn't mean he couldn't do both. Walter Stark had taught them all about the business they would one day inherit, because while Howard was clearly going to be the CEO and the public face of the company, Tony was good with his hands.

He'd been in the car when it went off-road, but whatever the Asgardians did to fix his heart also made him invulnerable to injury, and against all odds, he survived what was once again, meant to kill him. Only now that he thought about it, this was probably an attack on Howard. No one actually cared about the invisible twin that was Anthony Stark, because any and every scandal there could possibly be was done by his brother. Tony had worked quietly enough behind the scenes that even his brother's business partner, Obadiah Stane, hadn't seen him coming. It was in their father's will, and attached to Howard's, that the company remain in the family and stayed true to its roots no matter how far it expanded.

"Well, I won't have any trouble with that second part."

Even still, he'd have to keep an eye on Stane.

* * *

" _I'm sorry."_

" _What good could you have done? It's not like you built the train."_

" _He's your friend."_

" _He was your friend too. Or did you guys just get along for my sake?"_

" _Don't let your head get too big there, Rogers. Barnes was an alright guy. I wasn't as close to him as you were, but we definitely had our moments."_

And they had, Tony recalled as he rode in a jeep back from his latest demonstration for the Jericho missile. Stane would be proud, he knew, but all Tony could think about as the soldiers (and airmen) heckled him about The Red Press was the only other time he'd done this, with actual friends. He and Bucky hadn't always gotten along, but they were definitely friends, and his squad was more than willing to accept him and his brother into the fold.

And then, because apparently this was going to be predictable, they got bombed in the Middle East.

(It was to his detriment, though not his surprise, that the terrorists had his company's weapons and gear. He was going to kill Obadiah when he got back!)

(But) First he had to get them back. (Those poor kids hadn't been as lucky as the Commandos.)

Yinsen was literally a godsend. He spent his nights thanking every god he'd met, and even the ones he didn't, that the man was there to keep him sane. Yes, Tony could hold his breath indefinitely but that's not the point! He's not the guy you're looking for! (Then again, Howie had been dead for years now, and not for the first time was Tony glad of this.) If only his brother could see him now… (He secretly wondered whether his brother and sister-in-law ever reached the Valhalla that the gods often praised. His brother had been a lot of things, and loyal was one of them. Haunted was another, because even after he spent his days off rejoicing the fact that his brother had returned, they never stopped looking for Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes.

("There's no way in Hell that Bucky is dead. Zola experimented on him. He was probably found by someone and we gotta make sure it wasn't Hydra!" (They were too late, Tony realized when he got a good look at the Winter Soldier. He would fight for Bucky now that he knew, but the poor bastard would have almost no chance of coming home and when he did, he wouldn't be the same. He'd be a million times worse than Howard ever was after the Manhattan Project.)))

He got out by sending them to a fiery death, which was far less than they deserved. (He wondered what their God would think when they met. He doubted the deity would approve of anything they'd done. You don't terrorize innocents for the hell of it.)

* * *

The first thing he saw when he got off the plane with Rhodey was Pepper, eyes redder than he'd ever seen them, even when she told him she needed a few days off for her father's funeral.

"Tears for your long-lost boss?" He joked.

"Tears of joy." She rebutted playfully. "I hate job hunting."

He wanted to hug her, but neither of them were all that touchy-feely and it could be taken wrong. Then he remembered that they had ten years together under their respective belts. If he wanted to hug her then he would, and if she refused then whatever. So he hugged her, which turned her stare from one of curiosity to one of confusion, and then acceptance.

"Don't worry, I'll fall apart in the car." He muttered when they broke apart.

"That's not my concern right now. I assume the doctors on base didn't let you go easy, so what do you want to do?"

"You'd be right, and two things. First, I really want a cheeseburger."

"Fries and a Sprite?"

"Hell yes!" He exclaimed happily as the trio walked to the car. "I need all the salt I can get right now."

"I'll see if we have time for In n' Out. If not then we'll find somewhere else. What's your second thing?"

"Happy, my man! I gotta say that it is really fucking good to see you." Tony offered as the chauffeur got in the car.

"Good to have you back, Tony." His friend offered warmly.

"Second thing is a press conference, but I have a plan and I need the utmost secrecy on this."

The other three agreed and he told them exactly how they were going to handle the company's shift from weapons.

* * *

When Howard and Peggy told him that they were starting an organization based off of Steve's idealistic view of the world, naturally, Tony was in. As time went on, he took less of a role in SHIELD but his interest remained the same. Which is why he recognized Agent Coulson when the man approached him after the conference, and they left the uproar of reporters for Obadiah to handle. He would pay for that later, he knew, but he didn't give a damn. He really didn't.

"Stocks have probably started plummeting by now. It's a good thing that weapons isn't all that SI is in the business of making. We have a pretty steady flow of customers awaiting the latest version of the StarkPhone and hospitals are clamoring for your ideas in terms of equipment and new tech."

Pepper wasn't telling her boss much that he didn't know, but it was relieving to both say and hear. He nodded along, so he obviously didn't mind.

Phil smirked.

"How long have you been waiting to pull the rug out from under Stane?" He asked.

"Awhile." Tony offered. "Weapons manufacturing was a product of war thirst that we never quite quenched. It's been working for us so far, but I refuse to let weapons for the United States military get into the wrong hands. We can still do protective gear and tech that'll spot IED's or something, but no missiles, no guns, nothing actively offensive."

"That's all well and good, Tony, but how are we gonna sell it to the brass?" Rhodey demanded. "We'd be losing our best offense."

"Would you rather have shitty weapons and awesome defense or the reverse? Anything can be made into a weapon and SI isn't the only company in the game. Let everyone else have a turn at matching what we gave you and the US might have a chance. If anything, it'll renew the spirit of competition. SI won't be wiping the floor with everybody."

"That's mean, Tony."

"It's true."

* * *

His plans for the next version of the suit he built would be instrumental in destroying the weapons caches that were scattered around the globe. Easy access had to be a thing, so the suit would definitely have to fly. This seemed to be a good time to send some ideas for repulsor technology down to R&D, but then Tony thought better of it. They could easily be abused as weapons, and if he had something like this mass-produced then that would mean chaos. He'd have to send something else down there, because this would stay his.

Flight was something else. It took several tries to get the repulsors under control, and thank you Trickster for giving him that applesauce because he was damn near invulnerable! He got thrown backwards, flipped a few times, and his landings definitely needed some work because that car was now scrap metal. Maybe if he took it apart, he could come up with something new. A better engine or a sleeker design. People were all about greener energy, so it was worth a shot. Hey, maybe he could remake some of Howard's flying cars.


	2. Lost and Found scraps

" _He's on the plane." Peggy breathed, horrified._

" _He's what?!" Steve snapped._

" _What the hell was he thinking?!" Phillips growled._

" _He wasn't." Steve muttered grimly. "Holy shit, Howard's gonna kill me."_

" _Just focus! We're almost to the plane!"_

" _Wait!" Peggy implored before mashing their lips together. Peggy's kisses were the best. No doubt._

" _I'm not kissing you." Phillips scoffed. Steve snapped off a salute and dove for the ground._

* * *

" _You're a fool if you think that these peasants are worth anything in the face of gods like us!" The red-faced Nazi snarled. "And you will die with the rest of your foolish brethren. You could have joined me! I have the cosmic cube and now, I am UNSTOPPABLE!"_

 _Tony chose that moment to act, as Red Skull picked up the cube. The scientist's apprentice crashed into the megalomaniac, and the two went tumbling toward the other side of the ship. Red Skull's howls of pain mingled with Steve's horrified shout as he watched them both disappear, surrounded by the blue mist that the Tesseract emitted. He dove for the cube, but it melted through the floor before he even got near it. His greatest foe was gone… at the cost of both his friends._

* * *

By the time Tony got back to Earth, he was further into the future than he ever thought possible. The Asgardians were right when they said that time ran differently. It was 1970, according to the newspaper on the nearby stand, and he was somewhere upstate, closer to Canada than the city. Things would probably be different now, what with it being 30 years into the future. But he could adapt. Time-travel was better than being dead.

* * *

They hadn't always lived in the mansion. According to Howard, they had barely been a thought when the elder Starks had the place built, and the mansion had been made specifically for their family, to house any children they would have. They ended up with Howard and Tony, and now that the younger thought about it, his parents were likely glad that they'd moved into the mansion. It had more than enough space for everyone and there were people to take care of them! Their father never let them forget his hard-working, inner-city roots, though, and used his own childhood as an example of what it meant to live well. At least they weren't as overworked as he'd once been. He made sure of it.

Tony pondered this as he stood outside his childhood home some few months after he was granted leave to return by the Asgardians. He'd taken his time getting from the Bifrost sight in Middle of Nowhere, Canada to New York City.


	3. Steve re-meets Tony scraps

**This is set when Steve first wakes up in SHIELD in 2012. Thank you,** **Kyrianae Narii** **, for being my first and constant reviewer. Hope you enjoy**!

* * *

Steve charged for the door without a second thought, ignoring the voice that told him to think rationally. No way did rationality have any part to play in this scenario, and they were sending people after him. He made sure to watch where he was going, but was in more than a haste to find whatever the hell that scent was, because it was driving him crazy!

His nose led him to a large room that looked very much like a command center. In the midst of all the commotion, he found the source of what had been bothering him. He wove his way through the busy room to where two men seemed to be in heated conversation. Both were slightly shorter than him, one was darker and wore a patch over his left eye, while the other's back was to him. He couldn't see much, but there was a lot that was very familiar. The way he stood, how every other word was accented by some movement of his hands, the same care of what appeared to be stylish at the time…

He eventually got to the arguing pair and placed a hand on the first one's shoulder, to which he found himself flat on his back, head rattling slightly as he glared into the fuzzy appearance of the man who took him down.

Needless to say, while Tony Stark had changed more than he hoped to admit, his fighting style sure hadn't.

"No wonder everyone was scared of you." Steve groaned. "Move like that'll knock anyone out."

"Well now you're big enough to appreciate it. And you know better than to sneak up on me."

"Could've been worse." The soldier offered.

"Yeah, I could've snapped your neck. Have fun trying to heal from that, Soldier Boy." Tony scoffed, offering him a hand up. Steve accepted grateful enough and was on his feet in a fluid move.

"You got bigger."

"So did you." Tony offered patiently, eyes glinting with humor.

"What happened after you disappeared?"

"Now that's the question of the day, and I'll tell you more when we get back to my place."

"The Mansion is still around?"

"It's a goddamn landmark. So's yours, by the way, but that'll be explained later. For now, we go home."

"Y'know, I've never actually been to your house."

"That's because my mother would have eaten you alive. She was one of those high society gals. My grandfather created SI but my dad was still a pretty hands-on, pull himself up kinda guy. He didn't lose his work ethic, even when he married my mother. And boy, did she hate that about him. It drove her up the wall when he wasn't prepared to spoil her every whim. Don't get me wrong, Dad loved Mom, would do anything for her, but he wasn't a pushover."

"With how things ended when The Depression came around, I can only imagine. Walter Stark was smart with his money." Steve recalled. SI was one of the few businesses that hadn't completely tanked, although like all others it had taken quite the hit. But Walter and his boys had managed to scrape themselves together and keep their company afloat.


	4. Rise and fall (slight coasting)

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

They stood on the rooftop, he and Pepper, after the Stark Expo, after the disaster of a birthday party, (it turns out later that the damn element had been eating away at his brain, being drunk had nothing to do with how things had gone so terribly wrong that night.) after _everything_ , and she stared at him, water in her eyes. He'd taken off the suit and the case currently lay at his feet, but Pepper wouldn't go near him and he didn't know which was worse, that he'd wasted the past few months or that she couldn't look him in the eye.

"I barely believed it myself. Asgardians think themselves immortal." He offered quietly. "And they gave me a whole bushel of apples to take home. Enough to last a human lifetime. Why would I be dying? _How_ could I?"

"Well those apples haven't helped you since you got back stateside." She scoffed. "You were just going to let yourself die, is that it? You thought that you could give me the company and Rhodey the suits and everything would be okay, that no one would…"

"Would what, Ms. Potts?" He murmured. "There isn't much left for me here that I could claim for my own. JARVIS and the bots would have each other, they'd have you and Rhodey and Happy. You'd all have each other and your respective friends. What could anyone possibly have to lose in me passing on from one world to the next?"

"Jesus Christ." A familiar voice breathes. He hadn't heard Rhodey land at all; he'd been too eager to hear Pepper's response.

"You can't possibly think that's okay!" His friend snapped. They'd known each other for decades, about as long as two adults can know each other. Rhodey had stuck with him through everything he could possibly face, and Pepper… Virginia Potts was a wonderful person.

"You can't have been… all this time, ever since you came back, is this what you've been planning for?" Rhodey demanded.

"My death? No, old friend, that was only the last few months. It would seem that palladium is an element with harmful effects when it's used long-term."

"What-? Your arc reactor? You were dying from the thing designed to keep you alive?"

"That's pretty much what I said when I first figured it out. How ridiculously ironic is was." Tony snorted. "But I've found a new element. It doesn't get rid of the lingering palladium, but it works like a charm. I'll be back to normal in a few weeks with some apple juice."

"Then what the hell are you doing up now? Are you trying to collapse or something? Good lord, rich white people are crazy." Rhodey snorted.

"I thought we just agreed that was me." Tony laughed. "C'mon, let's get off this roof. It's too late to go back to Malibu, so I'm crashing at the Mansion. If I feel better tomorrow I'll be back on the west coast, but for now, you're welcome to see what my childhood room looked like."


	5. A new mission

**I am so sorry for leaving you guys hanging, but I can't promise that my schedule will get any better. Hopefully this will suffice.**

* * *

"Phil!" Pepper greeted warmly as the SHIELD agent stepped through the newly minted elevator. "You're the first outsider to use that elevator. How'd you like it?"

"Thank God you didn't have cheesy disco music." The senior agent snickered. Tony scoffed.

"I wouldn't kill your ears with that crap, Agent. How's it going over in Spyworld?"

"Not so great, Stark. We need your advice on the Tesseract."

"What about it?" Pepper wondered nervously. She had no firsthand experience with the cosmic cube, but Tony had explained how he floated in what felt like empty space for eternity before what turned out to be the Bifrost swept him off to the Asgardians. She didn't like seeing the haunted look on his face when he spoke of the dangerous artifact, and she _definitely_ didn't like where this conversation seemed to be going.

"It would appear that the Norse god Loki has landed here. He says he wants to conquer Earth, but you said that armies and dictating weren't really his style." Phil offered.

"Maybe he's come here because you have the Tesseract? Last Thor offered, Loki fell from the Bifrost, which probably means he's floating through the Void. I was lucky enough to not run into anyone, but there are things out there far scarier than human nightmares. Maybe he got a taste of something."

* * *

Phil left after he convinced Tony to join him on the Helicarrier.


	6. STEVE! Also, things get weird

"Stark!"

The fact that Steve said his name with such reverence, like they hadn't seen each other a couple weeks ago, was probably something to be concerned about. Still, aforementioned man relished in the idea that he was still relevant, that the world hadn't left him behind like his brother or his colleagues from the war. An odd sentiment, one better reserved for the man who had lost far more time than he. Tony always felt guiltier for that now that Steve was here, but people rarely called him selfless.

"Captain." The engineer nodded at his blonde friend.

"They didn't say they were calling you in."

"SHIELD keeps secrets for a reason, Rogers. We'll talk later."

He proceeded to goad the guy (who was obviously not Loki) into custody.

"We can't bring him back to the Helicarrier." Was the first thing Tony said when they got the alien being secured.

"We have measures in place to hold him as necessary."

"That the agents he corrupted know inside and out." Steve insisted, catching on.

Natasha deliberated.

"I'll alert them to the change of plans. We'll take him elsewhere for interrogation."

Elsewhere ended up being an emergency landing motivated by Thor's ever-reckless attempt at getting answers from his brother.

Any other time, Tony would gladly sit the pair down and play therapy, but time was a luxury that they didn't have. So he did things the hard way and tackled Thor. That worked, unfortunately for him.

"We have no time for your father's ridiculously biased version of justice, Princeling. We need answers, and having your brother antagonize you is not the way to get them."

"Who are you to dare judge my father's methods?! Odin Allfather, King of Asgard and Protector of the Nine Realms-!"

"For starters, Odin has done nothing regarding Earth and yet we're still here. Secondly, I should have known that it would take more than a week's exile and a spat with your so-called brother to make you see reason. As it is, we have no time for a tantrum."

"I admire your council, shieldbrother Anthony, but you know nothing of what you speak."

"And you know even less, godling."

Steve decided that he'd heard enough.

"We need to get moving." He reminded them.

"I say again that Loki shall face Asgardian justice."

"Unfortunately for you, this is my Realm. And _that_ is not Loki."

Tony's retort stunned the newcomer, who deliberated and gave his consent, having come to the conclusion that something was wrong.


End file.
